On Friday, July 17, it was announced that bwin.party Group had been sold to 888 Holdings. The deal, worth 1.4 billion U.S. Dollars, happened after weeks of negotiations in which 888 and GVC (backed by Amaya - the owner of Full Tilt and PokerStars) were fighting to buy the company.
Although GVC offered slightly more money for the take over, bwin.party decided to go for 888 because of, for example, a better deal for its shareholders in the long term, overlap offices in Gibraltar, Israel and Romania and the fact that its Bingo software runs on 888 technology.
"Both 888 and bwin.party are self-developed technology companies, and we are excited by the growth opportunities presented by the integration of these proprietary complementing assets. We will benefit from the combined poker player liquidity, not to mention the significant upside in cross-selling between the unified customer base and product offering. I am confident that this deal will take us to the next level," said 888 Holdings' Chief Operation Officer Itai Freiberger.
soruce: The Telegraph and pokernews